Journal:
I got up at
5:30am having gone to bed quite late after catching
up on email, etc., and felt tired and maybe not
ready for another day of exertion. Anyway, I
packed all my now-clean gear, ate the breakfast I
had purchased at Woolworths last night and walked
100 metres to the Tumut Courthouse where I was to
meet the school bus at 6:45am. There was a
heavy fog and it was cold. I walked on the
spot to keep warm until the bus eventually arrived
around 7am. I paid my $2 and chatted with the
driver as we covered the 10km to my starting point
for the day. It was still very foggy, but the
bus driver assured me that it would soon lift, as it
did over the next hour as I followed a country road
through autumnal foliage and past working farms to
reach Blowering Dam.
My route then climbed up through the forest to the
right of the dam wall before becoming a very pretty
foot-track along the edge of the Dam but high enough
to be in the bordering forest. I gather I am
now covering the same ground as the Hume & Hovell
Trail Ultra Race and, if it continues like this, I
will be tempted to return in October to participate.
For the next hour or so, the trail either bordered
the Dam or turned inland to cross old farmland,
slowly being reclaimed by the bush after the owners
moved out to accommodate the Dam.
For some reason, I was feeling quite tired and
plodding a bit, maybe because of insufficient sleep,
and spent a lot of time listening to the radio to
take my mind off the fatigue. The scenery,
however, was fantastic and this section is one of
the highlights of the trail thus far.
I had an early lunch break at Browns Creek Campsite
and thereafter the trail followed fire trails, a lot
of the time through pine plantations, but also
passing by some lovely undeveloped grassy Dam-side
picnic/camping areas populated with yellow-leaved
trees and kangaroos. At the top of one climb I
checked my phone messages and returned a call from a
National Parks ranger to confirm details of my
encounter with the fire-lighters on Sunday
afternoon. Apparently the controlled burn
wasn't approved and will be followed up.
I was making good time in the afternoon, but the day
was passing slowly. I was hoping to find
accommodation at an old Forestry Camp, but had not
been successful in contacting them. I thought
about just turning up and, on the assumption it was
out-of-season, just finding some where to get water
and camp under shelter. It had started to
drizzle occasionally and the forecast was for
showers later.
When I reached the general area of the Forestry
Camp, it wasn't readily identifiable and what
buildings I could see had Private No Entry signs on
the approaches. I decided to carry on in case
the camp was further on, but it wasn't. At
this point I saw the first emus of the trip, joining
hundreds of kangaroos grazing on the old pasture
land.
I carried on another couple of kilometres and
arrived at another attractive picnic area but with
no benches/tables or shelter or water. It was
approaching 4pm and I decided I was better to camp
while I could see and before the rain arrived.
I found a spot where some fallen logs provided a
table and set up my tent in intermittent light rain.
I filled my water carriers from the dam and decided
to forgo a wash since it had been cool all day and I
hadn't really raised a sweat. I cooked and ate
dinner in the cloudy gloom of the early evening,
observing the occasional headlights travelling the
Snowy Mountains Highway across the other side of the
dam.
I retired to my tent soon after 6pm to write up my
diary and later will listen to the Federal Budget
speech on the radio (I know it's sad, but I'm a
helpless news junkie and former economist). I
have my fingers crossed that it will not be raining
when I get up, or it will be very difficult to pack
without getting everything wet.